Robot Alchemic Drive (2002)

Robot Alchemic Driver is a Big Robot/Monster fight in a modern city with a twist. There is a story and training mode and a 2 player vs. mode. In a nut shell, alien's attack the last city on earth. The big robot comes up, and here is where the twist come in, you have to control the robot from the perspective of the "hero" (three to choose from) and you can switch between the robot/hero mode. This forces you to make sure you have a strategic position to move the hero around in the city to see the battle without getting too close. As the game goes on you have the option to update/customize the mech(s) to improve them. You can end up destroying whole building/terrain as you battle the alien monster.

Storyline

As the seventeen-year-old sole inheritor to the Tsukioka family and their bankrupt weapons company, the game introduces the player to a world where all manned space exploration projects have been put on hold indefinitely due to a material called "Space Nectar" that poisons and kills any organic life in space. Earth is safe because of its atmosphere, but it seems that humanity is doomed to an isolated existence. When machines known as Volgara begin destroying the Earth, the player must pilot the only weapon on Earth capable of standing against the invaders. Along the way, lives will be changed, history will be made, and the origins of the Volgara will be revealed.